Is four loaves in a month a bit obsessive?

And that's not even including the 48 "muffin loaves."

I've been waiting all summer for zucchini at the market, and when it finally showed up, I'd found the perfect recipe to try. Heidi's Special Zucchini Bread looked a bit different, and, I guess to use it's name, special.

So I gave it a try, almost following the recipe exactly the first time, just omitting the lemon zest because I had no lemons (and could only find the ones with the neon green letter emblazoned on them) and crystallized ginger because, though I had it, am not a big fan of it. I bought what looked like a promising "east meets west" curry powder, and set out to try the recipe. And I augmented the few walnuts I had on hand with brazil nuts.

And it was tasty. At the first bite, I was unsure about the curry powder flavor, but by the second muffin I was sold. I had the two of them for lunch, and froze the rest. They really do freeze quite well.

The next time I made them, I omitted the poppy seeds, and once again used half walnuts and half brazil nuts, and made it with 2 ounces of butter and 2 ounces (in weight) of canola oil, and added some raisins. It was also good this time.

With it looking promising with the oil, I made it once again after my first Friday of school, but this time, used only oil. I beat the sugar with the eggs, and then added the oil. But the batter seemed oily. Before I stirred in the nuts (and after adding all the raisins I had in the house, about half a cup), I split the batter. Into one half, the half that ended up in the loaf pan, I put about 4 ounces of blue cheese that I had a wedge of sitting in the fridge that I feared would go bad. It turned out quite nicely. Different, but not at all unpleasant.
I did the usual thing with nuts in the other half, that became square muffin loaves.
But the all oil ones were a bit more dense. Maybe it was because of the splitting I over stirred them, or maybe it was the oil. Either way, when I made the bread for the fourth time this past Sunday, I started with two tablespoons of butter, beat that with the sugar, and then beat in 1/4 cup canola oil (I almost used walnut, which may have been an equally nice choice), and then continued with the recipe as Heidi had instructed, only sticking with my raisins and brazil nuts.

I think I've finally got it down. And I have a good 15 or so muffins in the freezer still.

Formerly Heidi's Zucchini Bread
makes one large loaf and twelve small square ones, or one normal loaf and twelve muffins

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
210 grams (about 1 cup) granulated sugar
105 grams (about 1/2 cup, packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil, or other neutral oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups grated zucchini (about 2 large), with some moisture squeezed out and fluffed back up

385 grams (about 3 cups) whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon curry powder

6 ounces (about 1 cup, 170g) brazil nuts, chopped
3 ounces (about 1/2 cup, 85g) walnuts, chopped
70 grams (about 1/2 cup) raisins

Preheat oven to 350ºF and place a rack in the middle. Line one loaf pan with parchment (overhanging over sides for easy removal) or greased and floured, and grease 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl or bowl of a mixer, beat the butter about 15 seconds, until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again for about 30 seconds to a minute, or until the sugar starts to incorporate. Add the oil, and beat until it's incorporated. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well and scraping down sides between each addition. Stir in the vanilla and then the zucchini.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and curry powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring between each addition. Don't overmix the batter, since the nuts still have to be stirred in.

Fold in the raisins, and about 3/4 of the nuts. Save some of the nuts to sprinkle on top of the load.

Portion batter into each of the twelve muffin cups. Pour remaining batter into loaf pan and smooth top. Sprinkle loaf with reserved nuts.
Bake the muffins and loaf side by side, removing the muffins after 15-20 minutes or until the spring back when lightly touched, and the loaf after 40-45 minutes.
Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy, or freeze for later enjoyment.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

My friend Kate and I were walking around and I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some eggs. As we walked towards the register, Kate commented about how fascinating the water aisle is and I remembered a $4 .5 liter bottle of water I'd seen. I couldn't find it though, so I walked us over to the refrigerated water. It still wasn't there.

However, in the process, we walked past the bakery case. "I can't look at it," Kate had said. Me, being the mean friend I am, asked her why not. "Because I always want to buy one." So I told her to pick one out and I'd make it. She picked out one with a flower on top, and then a different one called "Death By Chocolate" and then looked at a mango lime mousse cake. "That seems too weird."

We settled on a chocolate mousse cake. And here it is:


Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake
(cake adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle, mousse from Cooking Light, and ganache from The Cake Book)
makes 1 5" square cake

For cake layers:
2/3 cup (80 g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons (30 g) natural cocoa powder
5/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon (176 g) granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons (40 ml) vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons (40 ml) whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) boiling water

For chocolate mousse:
1 (12.3 oz) package firm silken tofu
4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
2 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

For bittersweet chocolate ganache:
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make cake:
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 325ºF. Line a 10-inch square baking pan or 2 9x5 inch loaf pans with parchment and grease bottom and sides of pan and dust with flour.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk in the sugar. At a low speed, using a mixer, beat in the oil for a few seconds until dry ingredients are crumbly.

In a small bowl whisk together the eggs until blender. Whisk in milk and vanilla extract. With the mixer at low speed, add egg mixture to flour mixture and mix until blended, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Gradually add the boiling water and mix just until blended and smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan (or pans.)

Bake the cake for 25 minutes (for two loaf pans) or until toothpick inserted in center comes back clean or it bounces back if lightly touched. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack (or using parchment paper, if made withe handles, remove) and cool the cake completely.

To make the mousse:
In a food processor, mix together the tofu and melted chocolate until smooth, about two minutes.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. In a small saucepan combine sugar and water and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring until a candy thermometer reaches 250ºF. Slowly pour syrup into the egg whites while beating.

Fold in 1/2 of the meringue into the chocolate tofu mixture. Fold in remaining meringue, cover with plastic wrap, and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble cake:
Cut cake into four squares (or each loaf cake in half). Place on a small piece of cardboard cut to size and top with 2/3 cup of mousse. Place in freezer for fifteen minutes. Top with cake layer and mousse. Freeze for fifteen minutes; repeat with remaining cake layers. Freeze for thirty minutes after final layer of mousse.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring 2/3 cup cream to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in 6 ounces chopped chocolate until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Let sit ten minutes.

Place cake on a wire rack and pour chocolate ganache over it. Spread to cover top and sides of cake. Decorate with whipped cream and chocolate curls if desired. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Simple Summer Veggie Boules

Yes. They require the stove.
But most of the work is chopping and hollowing out little rolls (if you can find them), so it's quite meditative. And the work on the stove is painless.

Last weekend I was at the library looking for a cheesecake book immediately following my yard-sale find: a mini cheesecake pan. I did find the book, but didn't check it out.
Instead, I checked out the Tassajara Cookbook because the picture on the cover of some sort of marinated tofu looked so fresh and bright. Or maybe it was just the overall look of the picture. I know, I know. Don't judge a book by the cover. But what else am I supposed to judge it by when I'm skimming the racks of new books at the library?

I picked out a few recipes from the book to try. The book mostly consists of spreads and dips and the likes (or at least the first two chapters, which is as far I read before having found things I wanted to try.) This also happened to be two days after cilantro, jalepenos and serranos were all suspect and before jalepenos were confirmed as the culprit, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find jalepenos or cilantro at the store. Which ruled out two of the things I'd wanted to try: Garlic, Cilantro and Chipotle Hummus and Anka's Roasted Red Bell Pepper Spread with Chiles and Lime (the latter being a double whammy.)

So I wrote a grocery list with three possibilities, depending on what looked good. I was really hoping to try the fig and kalamata olive tapenade since I'd had some tasty figs the week before, but that day the figs looked gross.

But I digress. I finally settles on two options: making the vegetable tapenade and stuffing it into hollowed out tiny rolls that I found in the deepest clutches of our freezer and caper-garlic hummus.

The vegetable tapenade is a keeper. Somehow, I didn't imagine it making so much, even though the recipe did say "Makes 4 cups." I think I may have ended up with more. I may have used more leek than it called for. Regardless of the quantity, it was tasty! And great wrapped in a lettuce leaf with fresh ricotta the next day. And wrapped in a lettuce leaf with leftover lamb the day after that.

What to do with it is up to you.

Sweet Veggie Tapenade
from Tassajara Cookbook: Lunches, Picnics, and Appetizers


Note: I returned the book to the library before copying down the recipe... Not my brightest move. But the book is on amazon, and it is one you can "look inside" of.

Little Bites of Cheesecake

Sometimes things just happen right.

Yesterday Mom asked me if I would help her make some appetizers for a meeting she had today, and I was thrilled to help. (I ended up making assorted dips and some vegetable boules) but of course it is dessert I love making. Any excuse to make lemon curd is good with me. But I didn't make lemon curd.




I digress. The kismet thing. There was a yard sale we came across on our way to the farmer's market. I stopped to look and found a mini cheesecake pan. My plans for lemon curd tarts went out the window. How awesome would it be to make mini cheesecakes!

So that's what happened. And I still could have made lemon curd, but I had a jar (it's too eggy for me) in the cabinet, so I just used it and focused on cleaning up the kitchen instead.


Mini Lemon Ricotta Cheesecakes
makes 12 mini cheesecakes

Note: I adapted this from a Amy of Eggs on Sunday who adapted it from a recipe from Bon Appetit that doesn't require this special pan. It required ramekins, which I don't have.

Crust:
16 graham cracker squares (about 4 1/2 ounces)
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 Tablespoon honey or agave nectar
2 Tablespoons cold water

Cheesecake:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
8 ounces cream cheese or neufchatel , room temperature
1/2 cup (3 3/4 ounces/110 g) whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 large egg

1/3 cup lemon curd
1/2 pint fresh berries

Preheat the oven to 425. To make the crust, pulse the graham crackers in a food processor until finely ground. While running the processor, add the butter, honey, and water. Process until thoroughly moistened.

Divide the crumb mixture among the wells of the mini cheesecake pan (about 2 teaspoon to 1 Tablespoon per well) and press down firmly with fingers to flatten.

Bake the crusts for about 5 minutes until the crusts are turning golden brown and slightly puffed. Remove the pan and let cool slightly.

For the filling, beat together the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon peel until the sugar dissolves. Add the cream cheese and ricotta and beat until well blended, about a minute. Add the egg and beat until incorporated.

Divide the batter among the wells of the pan (about 2 Tablespoons each).

Place the cheesecakes in a 400ºF oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until puffed and set around the edges. Cool on a rack and then chill about two hours, until cold. The centers will cave a bit, but that's fine.

Unmold the cheesecakes, top with a dollop of lemon curd and garnish with berries.

Broccoflower

I was so excited to see this spiky broccoflower at the farmer's market on Saturday. I'd been wanting to try it after coming across it working on a project about fractals.

It tastes like cauliflower. But it looks so much cooler!

Right now my age is obvious.

The Toughest Question

The hardest question to answer, I think, is that "what is your favorite food?" question. I don't know the answer. It depends on the day. I used to say, definitively, that is was khorosht-e karafs, but now I'm not so sure. So then the interrogator moves on to their next question, unhappy with that answer.

What's your favorite type of food?

Uh, edible?

But no, of course that's what they mean.

They want an easy to digest answer, like Italian, Greek, Thai, Mexican, Middle Eastern, etc.

None of those answers satisfy me though. None of them really mean anything. Well, they do, but to different people they mean different things. Take Italian for example; for some people it conjures up images of red checkered tablecloths, pizza, and spaghetti and meatballs. To another person, it may conjure up fresh seafood dressed simply in olive oil and some vegetables following a course of fresh pasta tossed simply with rapini. The answers really aren't that simple.

And then what about American? What does that mean? I don't even want to try to wrap my head around that.

Like this dish. It has Asian flavors, but is it Asian? Highly doubtful. It was conjured up in test kitchens, and is tasty. But it fuses together flavors and different cultures and fresh ingredients and fits them nicely onto my plate.

Now that's my favorite kind of food.

As for the actual dish composed of the elements above, it jumped out at me when I was looking at the index of the August issue of Bon Appetit and had avocado in the basement on Monday and saw Asian Avocado Salsa. Dad however decided to make something that wouldn't go with the salsa, and the watercress at the store was droopy. Wednesday night, with the remaining avocado, I made a small batch of salsa based on the recipe, and as per one of the suggestions in the magazine, tossed it with some summer squash Dad grilled, soba noodles, and topped with (accidentally untoasted) sesame seeds.


Asian Avocado Salsa
based on recipe in August 2008 Bon Appetit
makes about 1 1/2 cups

1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons mirin
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon wasabi paste*
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3 green onions, thinly sliced on diagonal (about 3/4 cup)
1/3 cup 1/3-inch cubes jicama (about 1/2 4" jicama)
1 large avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, but into 1/3 inch cubes

In a medium bowl, whisk together vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and wasabi paste. Stir in cilantro, green onions, and jicama. Gently stir in avocado.

*I used wasabi powder mixed with water to create a paste so I'm not sure in intensity how it compares to a purchased wasabi paste. However, if the salsa is mixed with pasta and vegetables, an extra 1/2 teaspoon or so does not hurt because the squash mellows it out.

Gingered Rhubarb Trifle

So I had good intentions last week when I bought two bundles of thin luminous stalks of rhubarb at the farmer's market, sensing that it may be my last chance this year. Then I got home, didn't have time to clean and prepare it to freeze, and just threw it into the fridge Siberia, and forgot about it. Except for the few stalks I used in a strawberry-rhubarb cobbler on Sunday.

A week later, I figured it would probably be dead. The stalks had gone limp, but most retained their vibrance and were free of wrinkles. And like I had thought, there was no more rhubarb at the market.

I was already making a marble cake for my cousin because he wanted one (nothing different, just a classic chocolate and vanilla marble cake in a tube pan,) so making a rhubarb cake would have been a bit of an overload, though after weighing my rhubarb I found I only had half a pound. I had leftover cupcakes from making a TV dinner, and whipped cream from making caramel sauce, so I figured, why not try to make a trifle?

And it worked. Though it wasn't until after I used ground ginger that I realized I had fresh ginger in the fridge. It was a hit at our party, though I think that it could have used a bit more rhubarb and the recipe reflects that chance.

Unfortunately, no pictures.

Gingered Rhubarb Trifle
serves 8?

1 lb rhubarb, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/4 inch piece of ginger, or a pinch ground ginger
1/2 cup of water
3/4 cup sugar
4 cups 1-inch cake cubes (such as leftover cupcakes, pound cake, etc.)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon finely chopped crystallized ginger, optional

In a heavy saucepan, combine rhubarb, ginger, water, and sugar and bring to a broil. Reduce heat and keep at a simmer until rhubarb is tender and most of the water has evaporated. Remove piece of ginger. Let cool.

Meanwhile, whip cream with powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Set aside in fridge.

In a glass bowl or trifle dish, place 1/2 of cake cubes. Top with 1/2 of rhubarb compote and 1/2 of whipped cream. Repeat layers with remaining cake, rhubarb, and cream. Sprinkle the top with crystallized ginger if using.

Cover tightly and refrigerate two hours or overnight.

A Crumb Treat For Father's Day

Even though it's crumbly, it's not a crumby treat. (I just read Catcher in the Rye. That word was way overused in it.)

Yesterday, I bought a couple pounds of rhubarb at the farmer's market, and now I'm finding ways to use them (and the strawberries, which overnight turned to mush. Uh-oh!). The big crumb coffee cake and strawberry rhubarb pecan loaf on Smitten Kitchen both seemed like good ways to use them, as did the rhubarb and strawberry compote from Bon Appetit that I was going to make last night but didn't. The crumb cake seemed like a decadent father's day breakfast, since we normally have eggs prepared in one of a multitude of ways with lots of fresh veggies. Our usual breakfast "treat" is significantly healthier.

However, I couldn't resist, and I had a feeling that eggs and rhubarb wouldn't be the tastiest idea (maybe waffles with a rhubarb compote, but been there done that, well not with strawberries... never mind).

Unfortunately, as per usual, there was a little glitch. Cool completely before serving. Oops. So after eating half of the crumb topping waiting for my parents to get up so it would be super fresh and in the oven while we went for a walk, I noticed that sentence.
And then it started to pour. No, really. The kitchen got all dark and I had to turn on the light for the first time today at 7:30 in the morning even though they'd been off since I'd gotten up.

So off I went to assemble my crumble, and put it in the oven, though it was missing half of its topping.

Big Crumb Rhubarb Coffee Cake
adapted from Deb's adaptation at Smitten Kitchen
Serves 6-8
I ever-so-slightly improved the nutritional profile of the recipe. It now features whole grains! But it would still be better for dessert than breakfast.

For the rhubarb filling:
1/2 pound rhubarb, trimmed
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 1/2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 3/4 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 to 3 tablespoons water

For the cake:
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons oil
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 4 pieces

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. For easier removal, you can also line with overhanging parchment. For filling, slice rhubarb 1/2 inch thick and toss with sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Set aside.

To make crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk together sugars, spices, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. Add water so that flour is not dry, just enough for it to come together. It will look like a solid dough.

To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and oil. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter and set aside.

Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon rhubarb over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over rhubarb; it does not have to be even.

Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from rhubarb), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Ten-Minute Tofu

I needed to use up some tofu in the fridge, and paging through Vegan Express at the bookstore, I saw what wasn't even called a recipe: it was simply a little paragraph on a page about simple tofu preparations.

Needless to say, I tried it with the tofu in the fridge, and it was super tasty. And super simple. I didn't even spend time pressing the tofu - all I did was blot it dry.

What was it?
Easy. Cut the block of firm tofu into 1" slices, blot dry, and cube. In a pan, heat about a tablespoon each of maple syrup (or agave nectar), soy sauce, and olive oil. Toss in the tofu, stir to coat, and continue to cook until browned.

See? Super easy. Serve with something (atop a salad, noodles, etc).